Ruth Bramley:
I always look forward to the Blowout, and this year was certainly no exception,
especially because I knew that the hurdy-gurdy workshops would be extremely good. This was my first year of running the box office, although I have assisted Robert for several years, so I wanted to get to Polesworth quite early on Friday, armed with all my paperwork, tickets for collection, etc. Almost as soon
as we arrived, people started asking me for tickets, or wanting to pay for previously booked tickets.

3rd to 5th June
Savage Prunes (concerts, Saturday, Sunday) In 2015, the Savage Prunes won the ‘Petites Formations’ competition at ‘Le Son Continu’ music festival, since when they have expanded into a trio. The group is particularly influenced by European folk, as well as baroque, Celtic, jazz, techno, and classical music.
Callum Armstrong is an innovative piper whose questing approach to the hitherto unexplored acoustic possibilities of the smallpipe is taking the instrument into areas most of us have never encountered.

Despite centuries of proliferation and cultural adaptation, Europe’s bagpiping traditions have seldom been appreciated collectively as a pan- European cultural asset. Nor are they widely seen, and usually only in isolation.
I blame the Renaissance.
That was when aristocratic patronage began installing a “classical” musical style based on costly, pitch-perfect, fragile and non-portable instruments, courtly ensembles and salon aesthetics. Composed scores and musical theory ousted oral tradition. Drones were dropped and music became a showcase of prosperity.

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